


Shattered Hope

by VividDayDreamer



Series: Prompts and Challenges (Supergirl 2015) [23]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: AgentReignCorp, Angst, Artificial Intelligence, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Fear, Fictober 2019, Hurt/Comfort, Prompt 14, Tumblr Prompt, references to season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-17 11:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21053903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VividDayDreamer/pseuds/VividDayDreamer
Summary: After having successfully mapped and rewired Eve's brain, upon Lena's summoning it obeys to leave its host.  However, when Alex walks into the lab, Hope recognizes its next host, opting to rewire her next.  However, a number of things go wrong, causing Hope to lose responsiveness as it destroys Alex's brain.  Lena starts to panic, having difficulties concentrating when the person she loves emits blood curdling screams.  And when Sam learns of this, Lena becomes overwrought with anguish, fearing the wrath of her other partner.The end becomes a test of survival, for Lena, and for her relationship with the two women she loved most.





	Shattered Hope

**Author's Note:**

>   

> 
> Challenge Details: 
>   * Challenge Name: [Fictober 2019](https://fictober-event.tumblr.com)
>   * Relationship: AgentReignCorp
>   * Prompt: "I can’t come back."
>   * Notes: So, this takes a few elements from Season 5, but omits some other things, because my mind decided to piecemeal different bits of the SG realm and slap it together, so I hope this all makes sense and is somewhat entertaining or at least interesting to read.
> 
>   

> 
> **Prompt me if you'd like to play! You can find my prompts and rules on my [Tumblr](https://dreamsescapeus.tumblr.com/).**
> 
> Enjoy, and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts about this crazy fic.
> 
>   


"AAAAAAHHHH!"

Lena stood in panic, eyes wide, frozen in fear. She watched as Alex curled up on the floor, her hands clasping at her skull, screaming in agony.

  


_It wasn't supposed to be this way..._

  


She fell to the ground to kneel by Alex's side. Lena's hands hovered above her, hesitant to touch her body.

  


"Alex..."

  


The call of her name was a whimper, a shuddered, barely there voice, whose power was held tight in her throat.

  


"Alex...how can I—"

"Make it stop! Make it stop! Please..."

  


Alex's body twisted and contorted, wriggling on the floor as the intense pain overwhelmed her. Fighting her fear, Lena placed a firm hand on Alex's bicep, holding it tight to anchor her and let her know that she's not alone. But that hold didn't last. With Alex violently squirming around, fighting off the feel of electricity sparking through her brain like intense, sharp bursts that seem to rupture capillaries, char tissue, and disrupt her synaptic responses, she inadvertently swung her leg, accidentally kneeing Lena in the side of her ribs; hard enough for her to feel the painful impact of bone on bone. Lena immediately hunched to the side, her hand flung off from Alex, to clutch at her injury.

Lena usually doesn't panic, but now, she is. Her mind drew a blank, her thoughts were only of Alex and of saving her, and how....how it was all her fault.

Frantically, she reached over for her tablet and hopelessly tapped at screens and graphs and buttons, trying to make sense of anything; to try to find a way to stop Hope from killing her.

  


"Hope! Hope! Damnit, speak to me!"

  


Her voice was aimed at Alex's form, her calls, nothing but desperate pleas to the A.I. consuming Alex's mind, but no answer was returned.

  


_This wasn't supposed to happen!_

_Why doesn't any of this make sense?!_

  


Lena tried to rationalize, tried to calm down and find a solution; to work under pressure like she always did. But now, now, she can't. How could she? The blood curdling screams of someone important to her, shot through her, echoing into her ears, reverberated in her soul and paralyzed every bit of herself. Alex means so much to her. She can't lose her... Out of everyone...everyone...like Sam, Alex had proven her loyalty. Yes, she stood by her sister's side to hide her identity, but she explained herself honestly to Lena the day after Kara revealed her truth at the acceptance ceremony. She didn't need to, but she did. Lena learned about the mindwipe and the suffering that Alex had undergone, recalling how close they had been during the chaos brought about by Lex and Red Daughter. When Kara had 'disappeared', Alex was there. Even after everything was over, Alex came to visit her multiple times at L-Corp, came by unannounced to her apartment to share some pizza and wine, and stayed to help her get over Lex's death. At some point, Alex had even slipped to her, one drunken night, about how much she meant to her, and kissed her in the process. It was a genuine, heartfelt kiss. One that started it all, and one that Lena hadn't felt in a very, very long time.

  


"AHHHHHHHHHH!!! Pleeeeease!"

  


Alex's continued cries broke Lena from her thoughts. Once more, she tapped across the screen furiously, eyes darting across it, trying to find anything of value, anything that would make sense, but nothing, nothing was triggering any ideas in her head. Her thought patterns kept getting shattered by the shouting, the screaming, the pleading for help, the helpless cries from someone that meant so much to her too; someone, whom Lena only later realized, had deep feelings for.

  


"Hope! Goddammit Hope! Fucking answer me! Stop it!"

  


But again, no answer. She tossed her tablet aside angrily, balled up her fists and placed them over her eyes; eyes that hadn't stop shedding tears that raced down her cheeks. She was shaking, uncontrollably, rocking herself, talking to herself, trying to calm down...

  


_This wasn't supposed to happen..._

  


Lena tried to replay everything that led up to this point to try to maybe recall something she'd missed, but her nerves were getting the better of her. Her stomach was twisting in knots, her heart threatened to jump out of her chest with how fast and hard it was beating, and her body wouldn't stop trembling for fear of losing someone she loved. Daring to glance up at Alex, the pleading continued, but her voice was getting weaker, her body was no longer thrashing about the floor; her limbs were slowly relaxing, with a twitch here or there. Blood leaked out her ears, trickled down her nose, and dribbled out of her mouth.

  


"No no no. Alex...no..."

  


Lena crawled over to Alex once more, placing her two fingers to the woman's neck to find her pulse. It was slowing down, thumping quieter and quieter. She touched Alex softly, her fingers lightly removing the sweat drenched hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

  


"Alex...darling...please...please hold on. I'll...I'll figure this out. Please...hold on..."

  


She leaned down, pressed salty lips against Alex's damp cheeks, mixing the taste of tears and sweat and blood. And as she leaned back on her heels, her hand flew to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs. Truth was, she wasn't sure if she knew how to stop Hope from destroying Alex's brain. She just couldn't— 

Lena had an epiphany. She ran towards her computer, accessing the A.I.'s programming. Hope had jumped from Eve's body the minute it fully assimilated her brain, rewiring it such that all neural pathways that affected human judgement conformed to the basic rule of "Non Nocere". Then, it found its new host. Alex had walked in at the wrong time, her intentions were to insist that Lena join her, Sam and Ruby for trick-or-treating. Once Hope had successfully completed its task with Eve, when Lena summoned it to return back to its normal form, Hope didn't comply. When Alex had walked in, it "registered" a heightened sense of emotion from Lena, and took the opportunity to rewire Alex next. With Eve left unharmed from the initial exercise, Hope considered the factors of its success, finding the need to enhance its knowledge on individual thought patterns. Hope didn't act out of selfishness, it was driven by logic; something "taught" by Lena. It also wasn't meant to harm Alex, as its prime directive prohibited it from executing any malicious attempt, however, by jumping directly into another host, something went wrong. Perhaps a portion of its circuitry degraded as it overexerted its resources with Eve, or perhaps it was simply overloaded, or perhaps it was something else altogether. Lena didn't know. It wasn't supposed to even happen. Hope was supposed to return to its housing unit.

But then it got worse. As Hope tried to assimilate Alex's brain...something else went wrong. Lena made the assumption that it had to do with what happened with Alex with the mindwipe. Perhaps it short-circuited Hope as it tried to intervene with Alex's neural pathways as it had done with Eve. Again, Lena didn't know. All she knew was that Hope was not responsive, was killing Alex, and that soon, Alex wouldn't respond either.

Lena tapped fiercely at her keyboard, reprogramming a hidden fail-safe for Hope's code, modifying it so that it terminated upon certain conditions; conditions now met in Alex. The program was meant to be a type of antivirus, but now, she was making so that the antivirus shut Hope down. She edited the last control structure, eliminating cases that would hinder Hope's ability to turn off, then frantically glanced at the code once more to check the syntax and logic. Satisfied, she saved and transferred the code into the neural sensory disk, then hurried over to Alex and placed it on her temple. Lena reached for her tablet, executed the program and waited with crossed fingers and lip-biting tension. A few seconds passed before the whirlwind of nano technology dispersed from Alex's body and returned back onto its housing and terminated.

Gasping with relief, she tossed her tablet aside once more and bent down to Alex, pressing her fingers upon her neck. Her pulse was still there, though very weak. She pulled up Alex's upper body onto her lap, cradling her in her arms. She then reached for her phone and dialed 911. After placing the call, Lena held onto Alex, crying with regret and deepened sorrow, as tears fell from her cheeks and onto Alex's.

  


"I'm so sorry, Alex... I'm so so sorry."

  


Head bent lower, she placed a kiss upon Alex's cracked and blood stained lips, just before she heard someone enter.

  


"Hey Lena, I—"

  


At the sight of the two on the floor, with Lena trembling and vulnerable, and Alex looking like death had taken her soul, Sam dropped the bag of candied treats and rushed over, falling to the ground beside them. Met with fear, her eyes darted across Alex's fallen form, to take in the result of injuries placed upon her girlfriend. She placed one hand on Alex's chest, the other, cupped Alex behind the neck as she fell forward; her cheek brushing up against Alex's face, sighing slightly at the warm feel of breath across her skin.

  


"Lena...," Sam's voice was panicked, ridden with fear and anger and sadness and worry. "What happened?"

  


Lena held on tighter to Alex, hands continuously shaking, jaw trembling, eyes drenched with the non-stop gushing of tears. She looked at Sam, their eyes locking in a silent exchange which echoed nothing but fear. She's never lied to Sam. Sam loved her, as she loved Sam. Sam was her safe haven, her strength. She was someone Lena was always able to rely on and who never judged her. Yet, this time, she felt that Sam would hate her. Lena believed that despite their relationship, the fact that Lena was responsible for Alex's condition, would turn Sam against her, and she feared that like no other. The thought of losing both Alex and Sam, was too much. But, she's never lied to Sam.

Sam read the hesitation and placed her hand atop of Lena's.

  


"Lee, hey...," she said with a soothing voice, masking all the worry behind it. "Lee, it's okay. Please, talk to me. What happened?"

  


The three of them had their strengths. The three of them supported one another. The three of them took turns being the stronger of the pack, to make sure the others didn't fall. This time, it was Sam who stepped up.

Crumbling at the kindness in Sam's voice, Lena broke down, weeping uncontrollably and so much, that Sam reached out to take hold of Lena's arm and pull her towards her, allowing Lena to rest her head against Sam's shoulder. It was a desperate sight, a literal triangle of love, with Lena and Sam arching over Alex's unmoving frame.

  


"Babe, talk to me," Sam said calmly over the gut-wrenching sobs that shook through Lena. It took a minute, but Lena eventually got control over herself, enough to take down the intensity of her cries, to sniffles and small gasps.

"Hope...," she mumbled helplessly into the fabric of Sam's shoulder.

  


It took a moment for Sam to register the meaning. She took a deep breath to calm down the emotions that threatened to boil over when she realized that Lena wasn't speaking of a feeling, but of an actual thing; her pet A.I.

Breathing out a controlled and focused breath, Sam shut her eyes, taking a moment to determine whether or not she wanted to know more. She knew of Lena's A.I. and her facination around it. Alex did too, though, they didn't fully understand the extent to which Lena's experiment involved. Lena had only spoken with vague explanations and disjointed thoughts about "helping humanity." They both trusted Lena, so they had no reason to question her intentions, especially since the two believed she was still in the very early stages of it.

After a moment, she realized she didn't want to know. Knowing would worsen the situation on an emotional level that they weren't capable of controlling, not with Alex in the shape that she was.

  


"Is Alex safe?" is all Sam asked.

"From Hope? Yes...," came the guilt ridden, weak response. "I called for help...they'll be here soon."

  


Sam separated from Lena, bringing back a space between them so that Sam could see her eyes.

  


"Did you call Kara? Did you call Supergirl?"

  


Lips folded into her mouth, biting on them, as her brows furrowed and tears welled in her eyes once more, Lena solemnly shook her head, 'no'. A look of frustrated disbelief formed on Sam's face.

  


"You have the watch, Lena! Call her. Now!"

  


With a trembling jaw, Lena shut her eyes tightly, forcing the tears to run down her already drenched skin, as her hands fell onto Alex's body to grip at her arm. She then gave another shake of her head.

  


"Lena!"

  


Sam's eyes were filled with fury, with no understanding of the depth of Lena's reasoning. The fear of losing Alex was finally hitting Sam. She knew that Alex's condition required immediate help. They needed Supergirl to fly Alex to the hospital or the DEO if she had any chance of surviving.

  


"Lena! Call. Supergirl. Now!"

"I can't!" Lena's voice found the strength to echo her fear. The guilt of it call came rushing towards her. She feared the repercussions, legally, yes, and all the politics related to her IP and the involvement of Obsidian Tech, but most of all, it was the reaction of everyone else they interacted with, especially Kara.

  


Lena still had a grudge against her former best friend. It brought about deep anger and hatred, which was magnified through years and years of betrayal. It was anger she hid well for the sake of Sam and Alex; the two people she loved dearly. Still, she wanted Kara to the feel pain, to know the depths of her deception, but not like this. She still wanted to 'fix humanity', but the epic failure of her A.I.'s involvement will set her back, bringing on an onslaught of inquiries and interrogation, judgement and hatred that she wasn't prepared to hear from their circle of friends. But Sam was right. Alex needed immediate help, and the realization of this came through in the sharpness of Sam's voice.

Lena reached into her pocket, and pulled out the watch. She flipped open its face, halting for a fraction of a second to stare at that symbolic icon embedded within.

  


"Lena! Please!"

  


At Sam's pleading, Lena no longer hesitated, she pressed the button, knowing it'd be seconds before _she_ arrived. Sam then reached out once more to touch Lena's hands.

  


"Thank you. You know we needed her, right?"

  


Lena responded with a silent nod, then placed the watch back into her pocket. A second later, a gush of wind burst through the area, and the girl of steel appeared. She hurried over to the trio, her eyes searching them both for answers as she registered the severity of Alex's condition and heard her weakened heartbeat.

  


"Supergirl, ask questions later. Alex needs help, now."

  


And without another word, Supergirl nodded at Sam, then swept up Alex into her arms and disappeared, leaving the two alone. Sam then walked over to Lena and pulled the smaller woman into her frame, holding her tightly in her arms. One hand cupped the back of Lena's head with a slight tug to urge her to fall onto her chest, while the other hand rubbed soothing circles on her back. Lena broke down once more.

The chest-jerking cries poured out of Lena and onto Sam's shoulder. All her fears came crashing down on her. Now, she feared the loss of the ones she loved. What state would Alex be left in? What guilt would burden her in case of the worse case scenario? Will Sam force her to leave? If Alex wakes, could she ever forgive her?

With each scenario that passed through her mind, Lena couldn't find one that could feed her selfishness of wanting things return to normal. She concluded that what ever happens, the possibility for all three of them to be together again the way they were, was slim. Losing that happiness, the one thing she had in her life that meant so much to her, crushed her.

And, as if Sam read her once more, despite not knowing the full extent of the chaos of ramblings going on in Lena's head, she only muttered, "It'll be okay, Lena," followed by more shushing and soothing actions.

Lena felt undeserving of Sam's kindness, but also couldn't let go of her. Sam had always been her rock from the very beginning. And as that thought crossed her mind, Lena gripped tightly into Sam's jacket; her fingers wound tightly into the fabric.

  


"I can't...I can’t come back. Not from this!" she exclaimed with a defeated and exasperated cry. "It's all my fault, Sam! It's all my fault! Alex...she...she—"

  


Sam pulled away from Lena as she raised her hands to cup her girlfriend's face. Her eyes focused on Lena's.

  


"We'll get through this, Lee. We always do. Whatever it is, however angry or upset Alex or I may get with you with this...," Sam's hands held onto her firmer, "We will always love you. Alex and I love you, Lena. Remember that. Okay?"

  


Lena's hands slid up to hide her face in her hands, breaking out into guilt-ridden sorrow once more. She wanted to believe her words with all her heart, but was still fearful of that 'what if' scenario. Sam then took Lena into her arms once more, embracing her, fortifying her with her strength, and engulfing her, with hopes that Lena would believe that her actions spoke louder than words.

  



End file.
